CARROLL TOWNSHIP – Authorities do not believe the boat carrying four anglers who went missing Wednesday on Lake Erie was involved in a collision, a watercraft official said.

Two were found dead in the lake Thursday, and the other two are presumed dead.

The U.S. Coast Guard found their partially submerged boat, a 21-foot Tracker, on Thursday morning a few miles from the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.

The boat does not have any major structural damage, said Chad German, Maumee Bay area supervisor for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Watercraft.

“There’s no evidence of a collision,” German said. “At this point, we don’t know what happened.”

Authorities do not believe alcohol was a factor, Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Levorchick said Thursday.

All safety equipment, including extra life jackets, was aboard the boat, German said. The Division of Watercraft plans to look at the boat’s GPS to determine where the vessel was and could examine the boat motor to see if there were any problems with it, he said.

“We may be able to get a location of where a course might have changed or a speed might have changed,” German said of the GPS.

Amy Santus, 33, of Perrysburg; her niece, Page Widmer, 17, who was visiting from South Carolina while on her spring break; Santus’ boyfriend, Bryan Huff, 32, of Rossford; and Andrew Rose, 33, of Maumee, went out on Huff’s boat early Wednesday morning, said Huff’s friend, Yasser Khalil, of Perrysburg.

Authorities recovered Santus’ and Widmer’s bodies on shoals near Locust Point. They were wearing life jackets, authorities said.

The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search for Huff and Rose on Thursday night, but the Division of Watercraft and the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office continued the search for their bodies Friday afternoon until 4 p.m.

The Division of Watercraft planned to go back onto the lake and continue searching Saturday morning, German said.

The men are presumed dead because they likely could not have survived that long in frigid waters, authorities said.

The Division of Watercraft does not believe the men were wearing life jackets because they were not wearing them in video and photos they sent to family from their trip before they went missing, German said.

ODNR was using sonar equipment to scan the lake bottom.

“They’re not at the surface,” German said. “We would have located them by now with all the assets we have out.”

The group left from Turtle Point Marina at Locust Point to fish around South Bass Island, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The group was expected to return to the marina Wednesday evening, Levorchick said. When they didn’t show up, a family member called the Coast Guard at 2 a.m., and the search began, said Lt. Davey Connor, public affairs officer for the Ninth Coast Guard District.

“The family was in touch with the folks on the boat at 6 p.m., but there was no distress then,” Connor said.

The group’s truck and boat trailer were found at Turtle Point Marina.

Huff and Santus were avid anglers who regularly fished in tournaments, Khalil said. Recently, they fished together in the Western Basin Sportfishing Association’s Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament that took place in the Carroll Township area, he said.

“When they met, they just shared the common bond of that experience,” said Khalil, who has known Huff since they attended kindergarten together.

Huff took people fishing and hunting for a living, Khalil said.

“He was just a great person,” Khalil said. “He was doing what he loved. He loved the excitement of it.

In the wake of the missing anglers, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources reminds boaters to take safety precautions for boating on cold water.

Although temperatures outside are warming up, Lake Erie water temperatures remain in the low 40s. In water that cold, good swimmers can experience complete exhaustion in 15 minutes, according to ODNR.

“If the water temperature is less than 50 degrees, the window of opportunity for rescue is only a few minutes if the person is not dressed for the water conditions,” according to ODNR.

The agency recommends boaters wear a life jacket and dress in layers, a wetsuit or a dry suit. Giving a trusted person a float plan, which details who is on the boat, where the group is going and when they will be back and other information, also is a good idea.

Although these measures can’t guarantee survival in the event of an accident, they could make a difference in some cases.

The missing boaters had safety equipment on board and let people know when they were headed back to the marina. At least two were wearing life jackets.

Lt. Davey Connor of the U.S. Coast Guard also recommends boaters consider buying a personal locator beacon, a waterproof device that can help rescue crews find someone in the event of an emergency.